Allium falcifolium

Scytheleaf onion

Family: Alliaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Scytheleaf onion is a California native perennial found in northwestern California and San Francisco Bay Area bioregions in heavy clay habitats, including serpentine soils, at elevations of 100 to 2,100 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces rose-purple or dingy white flowers 9 to 15 millimeters long in clusters of 10 to 30 blooms. Growing with flat, winged stems 5 to 20 centimeters tall, it emerges from a small ovoid bulb with brown to red-brown outer layers. Its distinctive leaves are just two in number, sickle-shaped, and grow 1.5 to 3 times the length of the stem. The plant's inner bulb coats are white or pink, with perianth parts that have minute glandular teeth.

Habitat: Common. Heavy clays including serpentine

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: 100-2100 m

Bioregions: NW, SnFrB

California counties: Mendocino, Lake, Napa, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, Del Norte, San Mateo, Humboldt, Siskiyou, Tehama, Trinity, Marin, Stanislaus, Colusa, Alameda, Glenn, Sonoma, Shasta, Monterey

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.